Reissued in a slipcase
these five CDs enshrine two Dutch recordings
made within a couple of years of each
other in Haarlem. They share other things
as well: the same band, the excellent
La Petite Bande, and three singers all
of whom are distinguished exponents.
There is a certain logic to the coupling
therefore and one that will appeal to
those interested in historically informed
performance practice.
Leonhardt’s St Matthew
Passion uses an all male choir;
a boys’ choir, the German Tölzer
Knabenchor from whose ranks come the
two boy soloists for the soprano arias,
and the Men’s Choir of La Petite Bande.
The direction is noble, spacious, powerfully
expressive and rather introverted. It
is clearly deeply rooted in musicological
and textual analysis and in conveying
spiritual depth. I would characterise
it as meditative rather than dramatic
though obviously the two terms are,
in their subtle musical ways, not necessarily
exclusive. The note is struck from the
first chorus in which slowly unravelling
stands, precise but never coldly explicated,
reveal themselves. Accents are calibrated
– though I do have something to say
about Leonhardt’s accents below – and
the boys’ choir is properly clear and
aerated, open and less polished and
pure than their British counterparts
but gaining in a degree of richness.
The boy soloists take their roles with
commendable vigour though the results
can be variable. René Jacobs
strikes me as a rather matter-of-fact
presence; the voice is clear and well
equalized though not especially warm
or capable of much colouristic inflexion
(see Buss und Rau in Part I)
and whilst his Erbarme Dich is
attractively done it is seen through
the prism of Leonhardt’s strict contemplation.
The Evangelist is Christoph
Prégardien, an experienced singer
of the role who has also recorded it
with Harnoncourt. His Er antwortete
und sprach and the Jesus, Max van
Egmond’s responses, embody great gravity
and warmth and are features of the performance,
ones that on their own elevate this
recording. One can hear how much detail
has been considered in the question
of the balance when one listens to the
organ in the First Part Chorale O
Mensch bewein dein Sünde gross
and, as with the vocal forces, textures
are here clear and aerated. Klaus Mertens
and John Elwes also stand out for their
dignity and intimate correlation of
tone to text.
On the matter of Leonhardt’s
handling of a number of the chorales
I have more negative feelings. Those
such as Part II’s Mir hat die Welt
and O Haupt voll Blut and
Wunden are examples of his insistence
on accent swellings that sound to me
mannered if not perverse in the context.
And it’s true that the choral forces,
whilst strong, are not invariably commanding;
the boy soloists are also variable.
So whilst I admire much here – the elevation,
the seriousness and sensitivity and
the august contemplative spirit that
Leonhardt evokes there are certain weaknesses
that must also be considered. Of them
I think the handling of some chorales
is the most pressing.
Coupled with the St
Matthew is the St John Passion directed
by the first violinist of La Petite
Band, Sigiswald Kuijken. This is a less
contentious recording but also a less
rewarding one. There are real merits
in the band’s spirited playing and in
some of the first class soloists, Prégardien,
van Egmond and Barbara Schlick amongst
them. But the opening chorus sounds
very devitalised and rather dogged and
it’s the latter word that stuck in my
mind as I listened to the performance
as a whole. It’s true that the majority
of the choruses are better than the
opening one – Part I’s Wer hat dich
so geschlagen happens to be well
done, reverential, slow and attractive.
And I like the way in which the engineers
have caught the lute in Part II’s bass
arioso Betrachte, meine Seel where
van Egmond once more impresses. Nevertheless
the men in the chorus are not incisive
enough in Wir haben ein Gesetz and
for all his skill Jacobs doesn’t quite
manage to vest his great aria Es
ist vollbracht with the requisite
sense of moving humanity. On the credit
side tempi are moderate, as with Leonhardt,
and much is sympathetic and convincing.
The liabilities, though marginal, do
mount up.
The question of alternative
recommendations is complicated by the
fact that these two recordings are yoked
together in one slipcase and it’s perhaps
better to avoid the issue altogether.
Neither, in truth, ultimately convinces
but I would argue that the Leonhardt
contains within it a stratum of profundity
that repays close listening. Notes and
texts are as per previous releases
Jonathan Woolf
Choir and Orchestra of La Petite Bande/Sigiswald
Kuijken 
